Bassenthwaite Sailing Club is regarded as one of the top 10 Sailing clubs in the country. Our status as a Champion Club reflects this. As such we are required to encourage our young sailors to develop into more proficient and competitive racers by taking part in racing competitions at our club, within our region and National events such as National and Inland Championships.
Because we do this we get some very special training opportunities and some of these competitions do come to us, making it easy, and not too expensive to join in.
This is especially true during 2015 when we have an Open weekend of Topper Training, a Topper Open Meeting over one weekend and a Junior Traveller Open meeting one Saturday (Open to Lasers, Toppers, Fevas and Optimists)
2015 Events
Neil Garrison is planning the following briefings/talks over the next few weeks
Saturday 7 March – Preparing to Start Dinghy Racing. – What you Really really need to know. Alternative tile “To fail to plan is to plan to fail”
Talks will run from 2.00pm to approx 5.00pm
To help with planning, it would be appreciated, though not essential, if you could book tickets using WebCollect The talks are, of course, free
Some Advanced Youth Training sessions, open to all former trainees, and all 2014 trainees who were part way through training, have been scheduled as detailed below.
April 4th 2015
April 11th 2015
April 18th 2015
April 25th 2015
May 2nd 2015
Also, there will be an all day Assistant Instructor Training Courses on April 4th and 11th. Please speak to Neil Garrison if your son or daughter are interested in attending as a certain sailing ability is required.
Mike Fairlamb has agreed to hold 4 Saturday morning training sessions in Mirrors to encourage Youth squad members to sail in Mirrors/two handed boats
May 16th 2015
May 30th 2015
July 4th 2015
July 11th 2015
Novice races in May will be in Mirrors.
There are a series of North West Topper Traveller events located in the North West region. Further details can be found in the ITCA website under west region.
February 28th 2015 – Chester Sailing club (NW Topper Traveller)
March 28th/29th 2015 – Free Topper coaching for all trainees and members of the youth squad at Bassenthwaite. Further details will be provided nearer the time.
April 11th 2015 – Burwain Sailing Club (NW Topper Travellers)
April 18th 2015 – Budworth Sailing Club (NW Topper Travellers)
April 18th /19th 2015 – All girls Topper open training at Rutland Water. This is organised by ITCA (International Topper Class Association) please check their website for further information.
Saturday 25th April 2015 – Rudyard Sailing Club (NW Topper Travellers Open Training)
May 1st -2015 – Bassenthwaite Sailing Club – series of 6 novices races commencing on the 1st May 2015.
May 16th 2015 – Redesmere Sailing Club (NW Topper Travellers)
May 23rd 2015 – Rudyard Sailing Club (NW Topper Travellers)
June 13th/14th 2015 – Bassenthwaite Sailing Club (NW Topper Travellers)
June 20th 2015 – Bolton Sailing Club (NW Topper Travellers)
June 27th 2015 – Bassenthwaite Sailing Club (NW Junior travellers – all fleets)
Saturday 4th July 2015 – Colwyn Bay Water Sports Centre ( NW Topper Travellers Open Training)
July 4th/5th July – Colwyn Bay (NW Topper Travellers)
July 20th-24th July 2015 – National Schools Sailing Regatta at Rutland Sailing Club.
August 1st – 9th 2015 – Bassenthwaite Sailing Club Regatta.
August 15th 2015 – West Lancs Yacht Club (NW Topper Travellers)
August 22nd 2015 – Elton Sailing Club (NW Topper Travellers)
Saturday 12th September 2015 – Lakes Leisure, Windermere ( Onboard relay race).
September 19th 2015 – Leigh and Lowton Sailing Club (NW Topper Travellers)
September 26th/27th West Zone Championships. Ullswater Sailing Club
Saturday 3rd October 2015 – venue TBC – qualifying event for RYA Zone Squad (NW Topper Travellers Open Training)
If your child is interested in attending any of these events please contact Sarah on Sazzlenewport at gmail.com. The club has road trailers and equipment that we can borrow and it may be possible to share transport and event attendance.
2014 Recap
Overall this has been a very successful year for the youth squad with many 2013 trainees graduating from training to club racing and Open meetings. This was with the help of in race training from Robin and Ethan Dawson at the start of the season and guidance and patience from the various race officers and other experienced sailors.
After dipping their toes into the competitive atmosphere of a few club races confidence was high and several members of the youth squad raced during Bassenthwaite Regetta week. Nine solid days of racing as helm or crew in Toppers, Graduates, RS 200, Enterprises etc. A good selection of trophies have been won by these intrepid pathfinders. Well done guys!
Several members of the youth squad have been venturing to other regional open meetings to expand their knowledge and experience. A NW Travellers Topper Open meeting was held in June at Ullswater was attended by Hazel Newport, Jenny Dunn and David Rodger. Hazel Newport attended a Topper Travellers at Leigh and Lowton, The West Zone Championship and Open Training Day at Blithfield Sailing Club in September . A North West Junior Travellers Open was attended by Ethan Dawson, Lottie Winfindale and David Rodger in October at Bolton. Ethan Dawson also attended the Laser Inland Championships at Rutland Sailing Club.
Youth Squad members, Izzie Hunter and Harry Binns sailed with the Ocean Youth Club tall ships for a week in August and they hope to do more.
Members of the youth Squad also passed the following courses held at Bassenthwaite Sailing Club. Assistant Sailing Instructor, Power Boat level 2, and RYA First Aid course.